Until RFID Strikes!

Bar Code technology is finding many takers despite the onslaught of new-age alternatives like RFID. These takers not only include high-end industry applications but also big vendor names like Honeywell. It is interesting to watch how a company like Honeywell is also exploring the AIDC (Automatic Identification and Data Capture) market as a manufacturer of high-performance data collection hardware, including rugged mobile computers and bar code scanners.

With what it calls a broad product portfolio that entails advanced software, service and professional solutions, Honeywell Imaging and Mobility is raising the bar high for itself, it seems. Now what does it mean to scan a market at this stage of its lifecycle and what sense or threat do the likes of RFID technology make for Honeywell? That and more, answered in this interview with Prakash Jethwa, General Manager, South Asia.

Can’t help asking this one first. Why Bar Code industry? What drew Honeywell towards it? Specially when the industry is on the advanced stages of its curve?

With its long history and having well established itself as a conglomerate, Honeywell keeps looking for new areas. AIDC is mature but still fragmented. A phase of consolidation here is due and we want to enter a mature space. For us, this is the right stage.

Would it pique your interest from acquisition angle too? How?

For us, it will be about a global platform. It can be regional/local strength also but if the product is good, and the technology strong, we can extend it globally. I won’t mention any names here. We are strong in scanners today and meanwhile adding more products in the mobile space. There could be a possible space to do more, specially if we focus on the solution side (like software and networking).

How do you interpret the scales between RFID and bar code technology? Or for that matter other sensor/location-oriented technologies?

All are linked in some way. The common theme is supply-chains where bar codes are playing a part. As consumption and transaction grows, supply chains have to keep up and the way to do is automation. Retail triggered the boom and other industries are catching up. RFID per se, has a lot of promise.

If these promises can be delivered, great. But there are still physical limitations around it, like metals, liquids. So until the technology develops, it stays a niche industry. Wal-Mart, the one that triggered it by making it pervasive, is scaling back too today. They probably figured out that it doesn’t give out that much as it appeared to.

Is it because cost, data, application are tough spots when it comes to RFID?

Accuracy is also a question that adds here. Once it works, there is what you call a deluge of data. Now what to do with that and how to create applications to turn it into information? It also matters how you use the information, how your infrastructure scales up, how network traffic generated by these sensors is handled, and how ROI is ensured.

So this or Mobile wallets or other alternative technologies, how is Honeywell reacting to them? Are you watching them or preparing against them?

We won’t enter these spaces today. Not commercially. But we are playing with the technology part quite actively. From a technology sense, we are here. But no commercially viable stages yet. We understand the space, and would keep a hold on it though. When the time comes, maybe we will acquire someone and jumpstart in a new gear.

From a vantage point of leading SAARC, what in your view is the India adoption curve shaping up like? Any special high-action verticals?

Mature customers often come from a growing Asian economy. Asia itself has enough variety. Australia is a mature market while India, China, Indonesia etc have their own attributes. The whole pie is growing. The question is who is growing faster. We want to be there.

In terms of domains, health is a Greenfield. It is an opportunity for us. In the US, Europe, we have good presence here, or shall I say, we are the only player to have specifically-tailored devices. We draw from our inherent Honeywell strengths here, for example with plastics, germ-free materials. There is lot of opportunity here in next four to five years.